Conventionally, there has been proposed knockdown furniture for an infant (play yard, play pen) that forms a sleeping space or a playing space for an infant. The knockdown furniture for an infant includes a hollow rectangular parallelepiped main body, and only an upper surface of the main body is opened. An infant can be placed into the main body from the opened upper surface, and the infant is surrounded by the main body and is safely protected. A flat bed plate can be attached in the main body in a suspended manner, and the infant can be laid down on the upper surface of the bed plate. Further, when the knockdown furniture for an infant is not used, it can be folded and stored. When the knockdown furniture is to be used, it can be assembled and used. In this way, the knockdown furniture for an infant has an advantage such that both a playing space and a sleeping space for an infant can be easily formed, and when it is not used, it can be folded and a space for installing the knockdown furniture can be effectively utilized.
A specific structure for such conventional knockdown furniture for an infant is explained below. That is, a rectangular parallelepiped main body includes four vertical frames, four upper lateral frames connected to upper portions of the vertical frames, and four lower lateral frames connected to lower portions of the vertical frames. Side sheets are provided between adjacent vertical frames, and a bottom plate is provided between the lower lateral frames.
A central portion of each upper lateral frame in its longitudinal direction can be folded downward. Therefore, when the knockdown furniture for an infant is not used, a bottom plate is first detached from the main body, the upper lateral frames are folded downward from their central portions, thereby collecting the four vertical frames to a central position as viewed from above, and the knockdown furniture for an infant can be folded. Further, when the knockdown furniture for an infant is to be used, the vertical frame is pushed and spread laterally outward, the central portion of each upper lateral frame is brought upward and is returned straightly, and the bottom plate can be attached to the main body (see Patent Document 1, for example).
Patent Document 1: U.S. Pat. No. 7,043,779 Specification